1. Field of the Invention
The following invention disclosure is generally concerned with semiconductor cooling systems in high performance electronic devices and specifically concerned with Peltier semiconductor elements of non-rectilinear shapes arranged to provide a spatial concentration of the heat transfer effects.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2004/0120156 published on Jun. 24, 2004 by inventor Ryan of Riversdale, N.Y., teaches a high-powered lighting assembly, which includes an easily sealed continuous thermal barrier and a solid-state actively controlled closed loop refrigeration system to maximize operational efficiencies increase to unit life. A novel fanout arrangement of five rectilinear Peltier elements provides a nice heat spreading scheme coupled to an LED light source. In this way, the LED can operate at very high power, while the Peltier cooling system transfers heat out the back of the package, which includes a special insulation system. The systems presented by Ryan are highly effective in view of the fact that heat is generated in a small focused, point-like area.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2004/0190305 by Arik et al., also teaches an LED with active cooling systems. In this case, fluid, such as water, draws heat away from the LED and transfers it to a dissipating structure.
Heat dissipating silicate-on-insulator structures are presented by inventor Marcis in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2002/0033189 of Mar. 21, 2002. In some of the systems a radial fanout of silicate-on-insulator pieces formed a heat transfer system having a concentrated cold area at a device center. However, as a device is purely two-dimensional in nature, that is the heat dissipating area is completely within a single plane, it is a necessary condition that the hot area is similar in size to the cold area, although somewhat larger.
Inventors Shimada et al., teaches in U.S. Pat. No. 6,826,916, a “laser module, Peltier module, and Peltier module integrated heat spreader”. The laser module is a high-performance electronic device which generates a significant amount of heat. The laser performance would be improved if it were possible to draw heat quickly away from the laser. As such, Shimada et al., has integrated a Peltier heat transfer system with the laser module. The laser module may be considered a point-type heat source. As such, the Peltier module configuration is arranged to cooperate with such point-type heat sources, as it is tightly thermally coupled thereto.
Kimura et al. are inventors of semiconductor laser modules having Peltier heat transfer systems which regulate laser temperature. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,697,399 entitled “Semiconductor Laser Module with Peltier Module for Regulating a Temperature of a Semiconductor Laser Chip”, a high-performance electronic device, namely a laser, is integrated with a Peltier heat transfer system. The system in Kimura et al. illustrates a primary deficiency found throughout the art that the use of rectilinear Peltier elements to cool point-type heat sources is inefficient at best, because the “cold side” is embodied as a plane which occupies an extensive area while heat production occurs at a very tiny point. It is very hard to effectively couple a large planar surface to a point-type heat source as the coupling's efficiency depends on thermal conduction in the cold plane. Kimura et al. systems would be greatly improved if the cold generating means were more tightly focused, and in closer contact with the laser device.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,219,364 inventor Dei teaches a semiconductor laser module having improved metal substrate on Peltier element. The “metal substrate on Peltier element” is designed to better couple the point-type heat source to the large plane of the Peltier heat transfer system. Particular attention is drawn to FIG. 7 which describes a heat flow pattern in three dimensions (labeled as X in the drawing). One will note that the cold plane 11A is stood off far away from the heat source laser 1; for this reason, Dei depends on a complex structure to pass heat from the laser to the large cold plane. While Dei tries to promote a most effective coupling between the point-type heat source and the large cold plane of the Peltier heat transfer system, it would be highly desirable if the cold plane were better suited and configured to more directly address the natural geometry of the heat source.
The invention designs of Nagakubo et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,938 are directed to Peltier control circuits and Peltier device structure. Of particular interest, is the Peltier device structure detailed in FIG. 2. It is clear that a plurality of rectilinear Peltier device elements separate a cold plane from a hot plane in the traditional Peltier heat transfer system configurations. A detailed further investigation of these systems will yield no particular effort to arrange heat producing sources in conjunction with localized cold spots which may exist on the cold plane.
While systems and inventions of the art are designed to achieve particular goals and objectives, some of those being no less than remarkable, these inventions have limitations which prevent their use in new ways now possible. Inventions of the art are not used and cannot be used to realize the advantages and objectives of the inventions taught herewith.
It should be understood that all of the herein referenced materials provide considerable definition of elements of these newly presented inventions. Therefore, those materials are incorporated herein by reference whereby the instant specification can rely upon them for enablement of the particular teachings of each.